Friday, June 30, 2017

Did
you know that Psalm 118 is the middle of the entire Bible? Psalm 117, before
Psalm 118, is the shortest chapter in the Bible. Psalm 119, after Psalm 118, is
the longest chapter in the Bible. The Bible has 594 chapters before Psalm 118
and 594 chapters after Psalm 118. If you add up all the chapters except Psalm
118, you get a total of 1188 Chapters. Psalm 118 verse 8 is the middle verse of
the entire Bible. Should the central verse then not have an important message?
No matter how you look at it, this should be a central verse in our lives!
"It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to rely on human
beings." (Psalm 118:8)--
Unknown

Thursday, June 29, 2017

Almighty
Father, You who are called the "Mighty Umpire" in this game of life,
we are not sure what uniforms we should wear. While we may be Angels in spirit,
in reality we are Giants of pride, Dodgers of responsibility and Tigers in
ambition. When it comes to faith, we find ourselves in the minor leagues. When
it comes to good works, we strike out; when it comes to knowledge of Your Word,
we are not sure of the ground rules.Therefore,
we are thankful for Your mercy when we find ourselves in foul territory; for
Your forgiveness when we commit one error after another; for Your uplifting
Spirit when we find ourselves in the pitfalls of a slump.Dear
God, may our game plan be Your will, and our response a sellout crowd with
standing room only. And, when our number is retired here on earth, may we
rejoice to hear You call out, "SAFE!" in His name who gives final
victory to all who believe! Amen.--
Unknown

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

“They were hungry and thirsty, and their
lives ebbed away. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He
delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way to a city
where they could settle. Let them give thanks to the LORD for His unfailing
love and His wonderful deeds for mankind, for He satisfies the thirsty and
fills the hungry with good things.”(Psalm
107:5-9 NIV)Lost, hungry, thirsty, and exhausted,
these wanderers typify the Israelites in exile. But they also typify anyone who
has not found the satisfaction that comes from knowing God. Anyone who
recognizes his or her own lostness can receive the offer of Jesus to satisfy
these needs. Jesus is the way (John 14:6), the bread from heaven (John
6:33,35), the living water (John 4:10-14), and the giver of rest (Matthew
11:28-30). Have you received His life-giving offer?-- from “The Life Application Study Bible”

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

To
affirm that God hears our prayers is to make a major claim about God and God's
openness to us. God hears our prayers because He has affirmed His availability
to us in Jesus Christ. Such a statement must be made softly and with an
appreciation of its magnitude. God, in Jesus Christ, has made Himself available
to us. We are able to hear God as the Holy Spirit opens our ears and makes us
available to God.

Monday, June 26, 2017

If our
faith is something that really does not make a big difference, if it is
actually not crucial that we or others believe, no wonder it seems boring to
some of our young. Anything we don't care about can't be very interesting. The
things we do care about, however, we inevitably talk about... If faith is real,
it seeks expression. It will communicate and profess. It will have the energy
of passion.-- John F. Kavanaugh in “The Word
Encountered”

Friday, June 23, 2017

The
Bible describes God as both transcendent and immanent. To hold an accurate view
of God, we must live with the tension inherent in these opposing characteristics.Transcendent means that God is far above and
greater than His creation. He is and always will be infinite, independent,
unchanging, and sovereign. God’s transcendence is evident in the following
passages: Psalm 113:4-6, Isaiah 55:8-9, and Acts 17:24-25.Scripture
is equally clear that God is immanent.
He is not an abstract deity removed from His creation. He is and always will be
personal, relational, responsive, and engaged. The following passages express
His immanence: Isaiah 49:15-16, Luke 12:6-7, Romans 8:15.In
many passages both immanence and transcendence are described. Here is one
example: “The Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods
[transcendence]… Come, let us bow down and worship, let us kneel before the
Lord our Maker; for He is our God and we are the people of His pasture, the
flock under His care [immanence].”(Psalm 95:3,6-7)-- Tim Muehlhoff in an article
entitled “A Balanced View of God” in “Discipleship Journal”, Sep/Oct 2006

Thursday, June 22, 2017

“All Scripture is inspired by God
and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in
our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.”(2 Timothy 3:16 NLT)Scripture
requires the activity of the Holy Spirit to speak. Words become the Word by the
empowering presence and activity of the Holy Spirit. Modernity taught that most
rational human beings, regardless of background, training, or character, were
perfectly capable of unaided understanding, perfectly able to grasp and
comprehend everything in the world simply by the use of reason. Scripture
frustrates such limited knowing. Scripture opens itself up to us through the
work of the Holy Spirit, whom we cannot rationalize or control, and modernity
is high on control and rationalization. Thus, interpretation of Scripture is a
communal, pneumatic affair -- a work of grace -- requiring considerably more
than the lone, reasoning reader.-- Bishop Will Willimon, from his
Peculiar Prophet blog

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

"God
takes care of His people like a shepherd. He gathers them like lambs in His
arms and carries them close to Him." (Isaiah 40:11)We
have been touched by God's tenderness -- all the tenderness of a gentle father.
God doesn't come quarreling and wrangling and forcing His way into anyone's
heart. He comes into our hearts like a gentle lamb, not a roaring lion.-- Max Lucado

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,neither are your ways My
ways, declares the Lord.For as the heavens are higher than the earth,so are My ways higher
than your waysand My thoughts than
your thoughts.”(Isaiah 55:8-9)

The way God
works is totally different than the way the world works, because the goals are
totally different. If you want to build an organization, human wisdom will do
it, but if you want to reveal the ways of God, you have to use God's ways.

Monday, June 19, 2017

Hope
does not build on certainty. To hope means we cannot be completely sure.There are no guarantees. Coming to God with a
mixture of hope and excitement is normal and human. We may even experience less
welcome feelings alongside hope, such as anxiety, fear, and distrust. But those
feelings are acceptable. God welcomes us with whatever degree and quality of
hope possible for us. Even if the hope is simply an inexpressible desire for
something more, it has power, and its power grows as we nurture the hope in
God's presence.

The
psalmist says, "You, O LORD, are my hope, my trust, O LORD, from my
youth" (Psalm 71:5). When we anchor our hope in God's steady love and good
plans for us, hope becomes a permanent part of us.We have hope not because we are powerful or
smart or resourceful but because of who God is. And as we test our hope by
acting on it, we release God's power into our circumstances. Our "hope
muscle" grows stronger and our desire for God more compelling, just as
exercising strengthens our physical muscles. As we consciously work with God, we
will see more evidence of God's work in the world around us. The more we hope
and watch, the more we will see that reinforces our hope and trust.

Friday, June 16, 2017

"You have collected all my tears in Your bottle.”(Psalm
56:8)There are many different kinds of
tears.There are the tears shed by the
mother of a little boy in ICU who is far too young to fight leukemia, but he
fights anyway.There are the tears shed
by the father of the bride as he walks his daughter down the aisle on her
wedding day.There are tears that stain
divorce papers, and tears mixed with sweat that stream down the faces of grown
men who have just won a national championship.Then there are the tears shed in prayer.Each and every teardrop is precious to
God.They are eternal keepsakes.The day will come when He wipes away every
tear in heaven.Until then, God will
move heaven and earth to honor every tear that has been shed.Not a single tear is lost on God.He remembers each one.He honors each one.He collects each one.-- Mark
Batterson in “The Circle Maker”

Thursday, June 15, 2017

We once lived
across the street from a couple who did not get along.The husband worked in security, but his
passion was to be a body-builder.He was
strong, sarcastic, and self-centered.His wife was small and timid -- and angry.He had to go
to work every morning at 6:00, and she got up at 5:00 to fix his lunch.We wondered why she would do this for someone
she was so mad at until she explained that she was secretly packing his lunches
with enough calories to put weight on Shamu the Killer Whale.She loaded what he thought were dietary
turkey sandwiches with butter and mayonnaise.She put extra sugar in his yogurt and made his protein shakes with
half-and-half.He worked out a lot, but
he could never understand why his body didn’t look like the guys in the magazine.He never
knew she was larding him up when he wasn’t looking.Our bodies
are constantly being formed by what goes into them.We may not like this truth, we may not heed
it, but we can’t evade it.Bodies get
shaped by what goes into them…In this
world we are being bombarded by a steady stream of messages from the media,
bosses, co-workers, people we date, books, iPods -- and from our own
thoughts.Our mind will be shaped by
whatever we feed it while the Evil One tries to lard up our mind when we’re not
looking.He will put depression in our
thoughts at breakfast, sprinkle temptation in our mind at noon, and slip us a
worry sandwich when it’s time for bed.He will try
to keep us from noticing what we are putting into our mind.-- John Ortberg in "The Me I Want To Be"

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

“When we were overwhelmed by sins, You
forgave our transgressions.”(Psalm
65:3)Although we may feel overwhelmed by the
multitude of our sins, God will forgive them all if we ask sincerely. Do you
feel as though God could never forgive you, that your sins are too many, or
that some of them are too great? The good news is that God can and will forgive
them all. Nobody is beyond redemption, and nobody is so full of sin that he or
she cannot be made clean.-- from “The Life Application Study Bible”

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

"They that wait upon the Lord shall
renew their strength."(Isaiah
40:31)God doesn't tell us how He'll answer our
prayers, or even when, but He does promise those who wait on Him one thing --
strength. Tony Evans points out that the word "wait" comes from a
Hebrew word used in the making of rope. Every rope starts as a thread, and
every thread added just increases its strength. Getting the idea? Every time you
wait on the Lord you add another thread to the rope; you get a little stronger,
a little more able to cope. Feel like you're just hanging on by a thread? Wait
in God's presence and let Him turn it into a rope.But waiting is not always passive,
sometimes it's active; like waiting on a customer, seeing that his or her needs
are met. Waiting is not so much a position, as it is a focus. Isaiah says,
"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed [focused] on
Thee" (Isa 26:3). Whether it's sitting prayerfully in God's presence, or
actively carrying out His will, you've got His assurance that your strength
will be renewed. Listen to these promises: (1) "Wait on the Lord; be of
good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the
Lord" (Psalm 27:14 NKJV).(2)
"Wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him" (Psalm
62:5 NKJV).(3)
"As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters... so our eyes
look tothe Lord our God" (Ps 123:2
NKJV).Need
more strength? Wait on God more!-- Source Unknown, from a subscriber in
Pennsylvania

Monday, June 12, 2017

The Trinity is what we have if Jesus
Christ is indeed God with us, God as God really is.The Trinity shows that God is in
relationship, that God is constantly, relentlessly relational, outgoing, and
incarnational.We can have new church
starts, growing churches, and an expansive Kingdom of God because we have a God
who is Triune.The Trinity designates
God as communicative, loving, relational, and on the move.-- U.M. Bishop Will Willimon from an online interview

Friday, June 9, 2017

"Cast your cares on the LORD and He
will sustain you." -- Psalm 55:22 (NIV)The word "cast" brings a
picture of throwing or pushing away and that is exactly what we must learn to
do with our worldly cares. Jesus can handle them. We sometimes give them a nice
kick toward the Lord in a sort of ceremonial way, but hang on just enough to
stay involved! We may actually be thinking, "Well, I can handle this or
that myself;" and that thinking gets us into trouble. We try to fix,
control or otherwise manipulate situations that we should have left to our
Lord. Fling your cares toward our loving Lord and enjoy the freedom of
living!-- Rev. Gary Stone

Thursday, June 8, 2017

Caregiving is a deeply ingrained human
response to suffering. We want to ease pain, to restore calm and peace to those
in need. But caregiving takes a toll… It is hard to listen to others when the
pains and troubles of our own lives are clamoring for attention.But if we learn to listen to our own
needs and wants, that listening can free us to learn to become truly present to
the inner deep and fragile beauty of those under our care. Then even the most
mundane and repetitive caregiving tasks can become a means for us to grow.-- Henri Nouwen in “A
Spirituality of Caregiving”

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for
You, my God.” (Psalm 42:1)This psalm got made into a song, and sometimes when people sing
it they think it means they are supposed
to long for God or like church services and church songs.But this psalm is much bigger than that.It means that God is my life-giver and
therefore my desire for life cannot be satisfied apart from Him.This is not a picture of Bambi wandering through a leafy-green,
stream-laden forest with a slightly parched throat.This is desert country.No rivers, just wadis -- gullies that would
contain water only in the rainy season.Now the wadis are dried up, and the deer is going to die if it doesn’t
find water.That is us.We were made for soul satisfaction and simply
die without it.If you want life, you want God.You want Him the way a deer dying of thirst wants water.You want God more than you know.

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

If we have routinely nurtured our relationship with
Jesus, that provides a safety margin against the unexpected [of life]. For
example, my wife has been quite careful to care for a small tree in our front
yard. It is an evergreen magnolia that we both hope to enjoy as a full-grown
tree one day. It has some new leaves and my wife has it staked out for
protection against the wind. Due to her diligent work the tree has many new
limbs and leaves. Well, along comes a stray football and one limb is suddenly
ripped away! Does the tree now die? No, it does not because the other limbs and
leaves can pull some extra weight for this "time of trouble."Likewise our relationship with Jesus has multiple
branches. When one branch suddenly falls under attack the others can do extra
work to make up the difference. We very well may face some difficult trials in
life, but our day after day nurturing of our relationship with Christ paves the
way for success. When the going gets tough the Spirit is ready and willing to
support and hold us firm. This simply does not happen if we have failed to
nurture our relationship with Jesus.--
Rev. Gary Stone

Monday, June 5, 2017

To enter God's refuge, we must first call out to God.Psalm 91:15 says, "He shall call upon
Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him
and honor him."

For the life of me, I can't figure out how this
calling-on-God thing works, but it does.The Bible tells us to walk by faith, not by sight, and this is one of
those times when we can't understand why something works, we can only trust in
God and then be delighted when we experience it.

For centuries now, Christians have poured out their hearts
to the Lord and found treasured moments of refuge.This is incredibly good news.We don't have to get out a map, calculate how
far away each one of the cities of refuge is, and then embark on a
journey.We don't have to drive to a
monastery.We don't have to call a
minister.We don't have to wait until
the next church service.The front seat
of our cars will work nicely.Our
offices, our homes, our construction trailers -- they're all as good as the
most elaborate cathedral.We can access
the refuge of God anytime, anywhere.All
we have to do is to acknowledge our need, move from self-sufficiency to
dependence, and ask God to become our hiding place.

Friday, June 2, 2017

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures...”(Psalm 23:1,2a)

Sometimes God puts us on our backs in order to give us a
chance to look up: "He makes me lie down." Many times we are forced,
not by God, but by circumstances of one sort or another to lie down. That can
always be a blessed experience. Even the bed of an invalid may be a blessing if
he takes advantage of it!

Thursday, June 1, 2017

Someone has well said that "the heart of religion
lies in its personal pronouns." What a difference that one little word,
"my", makes: "my shepherd"... It makes all the difference
in the world whether you say, "Jesus is a savior" or "Jesus has
saved me"; whether you say, "The Lord is a shepherd" or
"The Lord is my shepherd"; it makes the difference between being
saved or lost.

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Welcome to SOUND BITES

By David T. Wilkinson

Over the years I have collected quotes that pertain to the Christian faith and life in general. As I have read or studied what others have written, I have been struck by the profound thought that is captured in their few short words. These quotes have been shared through SOUND BITES Ministry™ , a five-day-a-week inspirational e-mail ministry, and now are shared through this blog as well. You will also find us on Facebook by clicking SOUND BITES Ministry on Facebook.

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How SOUND BITES came to be

During Lent 1999 God prompted me to think about a new idea as to how I might share these thoughts with a broader audience. At the same time, our family was experiencing the first anniversary of the death of our son, Dustin, who died at the age of sixteen from a brain tumor. So, beginning on that anniversary, March 29, 1999 we began an e-mail ministry in memory of Dustin that we call SOUND BITES: Something to chew on that is good for the soul™. Five days a week, Monday through Friday, I share one of these quotes with subscribers. Hopefully recipients find something of faith and life to think about and chew on, which feeds their soul and helps them grow spiritually. Since its inception, over 4,000 daily quotes have been sent out. The subscriber list continues to grow numerically and geographically with subscribers in every state in the U.S., and also in Canada, Mexico, and numerous other countries around the world. Currently more than 2000 subscribers receive SOUND BITES directly via e-mail and many others second hand. Now through this blog we expand our outreach even more. To read comments on the 13th anniversary of SOUND BITES Ministry™, click 13th Anniversary Comments.